The study of booze with Camper English.

July 2012

On ShakeStir.com, an online community for bartenders, I write the New Booze blog. It is a round-up of new spirits products being released and products that have reached distribution in new states. Products released in June 2012 were: Controy Orange Liqueur Appleton 50 Year Old Rum Tequila Tapatio Grand Marnier Cherry Read about them all over on ShakeStir.com.
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I like to share interesting cocktail menus here on Alcademics and the folks at the Walnut Creek Yacht Club are kind enough to send me theirs when it changes throughout the year. Want to share yours? Drop me a line. I see: barrel-aged rum & sherry, celery/akvavit combo, spiced rhubarb syrup. Yums. The menu is below. Aperitif a light, pre-meal tipple to stimulate the appetite First Wave carpano antica vermouth, house orange bitters, seltzer water. served tall over ice with a slice of orange Summer Mixology from farmers market to cocktail glass Southern Courage buffalo trace bourbon, rothman & winters...
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On Thursday, July 26 at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, I'm giving a talk about sugar. I hope you'll attend. Along with information, we'll be serving up sugar in a few forms. The most fantabulous will be as smoked cotton candy. Then while listening to the seminar you can dunk that cotton candy into a sugarless Rum Manhattan (just aged rum and bitters) to sweeten it up. Fun and sticky! For your intellectual refreshment, we'll be providing you with information on: How sugar changed the course of history How sugar is was made historically and how it is...
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I've added two new menus to the Airline Drink Menus page: United and Air France business class for June 2012. (I was on a lot more planes than that in June but I forgot to pick up menus!) United now has Jim Beam Black on the menu, and Grand Marnier on international flights. Air France has just an awesome selection of booze, which other airlines (I AM TALKING TO YOU VIRGIN UPPERCLASS) should follow. Check out the Airline Drink Menus Page here.
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The other week I had the opportunity to visit Papa Doble in Montpellier, France. Owner Julien Escot had just won the Havana Club International Cocktail Grand Prix so it was a pleasure to visit his Cuban-themed bar in southeast France. You enter the bar and take a small flight of stairs down to the bar. Seating is opposite the bar, in another downstairs nook, or out on the street in an open-air plaza facing a cathedral. The menu has plenty of spins on Cuban classic and inspired cocktails like the El Habano, which is meant to evoke a Cuban cigar...
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